Fact is, this theory is under attack (Evolution Revolution Alert)

Baltimoresun.com ^ | 5 Feb 2005 | Arthur Hirsch

[gobucks]

ELKTON - Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants have taken a lashing here lately.

With the Cecil County Board of Education about to vote on a new high school biology textbook, some school board members are asking whether students should be taught that the theory of evolution, a fundamental tenet of modern science, falls short of explaining how life on Earth took shape.

*snip*

The politically conservative county of about 90,000 people bordering Pennsylvania and Delaware is joining communities around the country that are publicly stirring this stew of science, education and faith.

*snip*

At the Board of Education's regular monthly meeting Feb. 14, the five voting board members are scheduled to decide whether to accept the new edition of the book and might discuss Herold's call for new anti-evolution materials in addition to the book.

*snip*

The consensus in mainstream science, represented in such organizations as the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History, was, in effect, captured in 31 pages of text and illustrations published in November in National Geographic magazine. In big red letters, the magazine cover asks: "WAS DARWIN WRONG?" In bigger letters inside, the answer is: "NO. The evidence for Evolution is overwhelming."

*snip*

Joel Cracraft, immediate past president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, compared the scientific agreement on evolutionary theory to "the Earth revolving around the sun."

*snip*

Then there's the matter of teaching the meaning and method of good science.

"The issue is science," Roberts said. "What is science, and, if there's a conflicting view, does it meet the rigor of science we're seeking?"

[Fester Chugabrew]

How do we know you're not a space alien?

We don't. Or do we? If so, how? Surely intelligence and design has little or nothing to do with it. Right?

[bvw]

Anyone who talks of a person hardly known and says about something that stranger claims to be or that the stranger claims have done "surely [he] never has." has an exceedingly light regard for what "surely" means.

That's pathological, I'd think. It is confusing emotionally driven flights of fancy with reality. Xenophobic.

Do you get out much "Doc"?

[balrog666]

No doubt. Social promotion, I dare say.

| Pegged it in one!

[Dimensio]

I'm not sure that he's ever posted blatantly out-of-context quotes from Darwin before, and even if he has, he's not been posting them nonstop despite explanations as to why their presentation is fundamentally dishonest.

[Right Wing Professor]

Is he, or is he not, an incarnation of the much reviled ALS?

Could well be. He seems a little better educated, but even dogs learn.

My own theory is that ALS is the BTK killer. They both live in Wichita; and every letter in ALS is one letter distant from a letter in BTK.

[_Jim]

How long will you go on being simpleminded?

That's exactly the question we have for you, chum.

We are witnessing, I think, a 'devolutionary' process here; man, well, some men, bent on their own limited view of the world, it's processes, and by extension, the underlying physics and chemistry, are attempting to deny wholesale even those things whuch have been developed during their own lifetimes: to wit, in this case, the evolutionary development of the computer (technology in general) and the pivotal role science (and the practical use of that science via engineering at al levels) has played.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

- 1 Corinthians 13:11

[ValenB4]

"Again I salute you for what, in a bygone day, would be presumed to be 'common sense'. Today you have my, and I suspect many lurkers', respect - for whatever that's worth.

I must say that I definately approve of your kind words. You may heap them on me at anytime you wish. As a matter of fact, perhaps a mutual admiration society is in order. You consistently demonstrate impeccable logic and present your points in a great way. :)

[Rudder]

Anyone who talks of a person hardly known and says about something that stranger claims to be or that the stranger claims have done "surely [he] never has." has an exceedingly light regard for what "surely" means.

Whoever wrote this has been hitting the sauce too much.

[balrog666]

Now, knowing a trajectory of the asteroid, and it's mass, one can go back and determine the results. Can you say the same for providing environmental conditions and predicting an end result?

There is a limit beyond which the error bounds exceed your initial (and projected) measurements.

[Right Wing Professor]

Anyone who talks of a person hardly known and says about something that stranger claims to be or that the stranger claims have done "surely [he] never has." has an exceedingly light regard for what "surely" means.

I bet you intended that to be an intelligible sentence. Try it again. Keep it short and simple.

[Tench_Coxe]

"Sex is a selective pressure, and it enables intervention. Thus, human beings selectively bred animals to elmininate unwanted traits and to maximize preferred traits. The examples are abundant."

Non-predictive. It still didn't answer my proposal in post 352.
Before you accuse me of being a closet Creationist, I would inform you that Creationism is bunk. It is definitely due to insecure people trying to justify a mindset.
I am interested in science. If you want to accuse me as an epistemologist ( as they would at talk.origins ) and leave it at that, fine. I've been partaking in beer this evening and am rather grumpy.
But, wouldn't science be better served at understanding the mechanism, than pursuing grants?

[Tench_Coxe]

" There is a limit beyond which the error bounds exceed your initial (and projected) measurements."
Degree of error can be accounted for in such a calculation. Can the same be said for speciation?

[Right Wing Professor]

Easy, guy. I'm agreeing with you. It's nasaman I'm referring to.

[balrog666]

My own theory is that ALS is the BTK killer.

"BTK killer"??

Hard to believe I missed such a person, unless you mean ...

[Doctor Stochastic]

Projection of their inner feelings and desires onto others.

[FastCoyote]

Sorry,reading your other posts you didn't seem the sort. But I get an itchy trigger finger on these threads. One might say I devolve.

[Rudder]

Don't read too much between the lines...I never accused you of anything.

I was merely giving you some examples of selective pressure leading to speciation. I assumed you'd see the 'predictability' inherent in my rather simplistic statements. Dog breeders (and more) and microbiologists alike are successfully predicting evolutionary outcome as a matter of day-to-day business.

[Right Wing Professor]

Yep, I mean...

Same city. What better job for a serial killer than a repairman who has to enter facilties at odd hours?

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[bvw]

*Surely* you read and understood it.

Short? Here's real curt, "Doc": You are a xenophobe.